There is a war coming. James and Lily have to start preparing to leave their safe haven of Hogwarts and get ready for the brutal reality of the outside world.

Chapter 7: Death Stares and Deserted Snogging

*squees at skfdnhff chapter image made by easterlies @tda*

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‘Lily!’ he screamed. ‘What are you doing?’

I quickly stood up. ‘Sirius. I have to tell you something.’

‘What? You’re cheating on me? With my best friend?’

‘No!’ I said hastily. ‘Never! But I –’

‘You’re breaking up with me?’ Sirius demanded, like he read my mind.

‘Yes,’ I sighed heavily. ‘I’m really sorry, but –’

‘ARGH!’ Sirius yelled, and he raised his hand and brought it down on my face.

I fell to the floor and felt my stinging cheek.

‘SIRIUS!’ someone shouted. ‘SIRIUS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?’ I looked up. It was Remus. Peter was there too. He grabbed Sirius’s arm.

‘Did you do this?’ he snarled.

Sirius glared at me. And nodded. James growled at him. He and Remus helped me up.

‘Thanks,’ I said, my fingers still lingering on my cheek. I took a step towards my ex. ‘Sirius. You know I only dated you to make James jealous, but then I realised that I did like you.’

‘But?’

‘I don’t anymore. So, I’m sorry, but I’m breaking up with you to be with James.’

‘But James is with Courtney.’

‘No, I’m not,’ James said. ‘I ended it before we went to bed.’

‘Won’t she be upset?’ I asked, gazing towards him. He just shrugged.

‘Fine,’ Sirius snapped, spit flying everywhere. ‘Fine. Be with him. I don’t care. I hope you two are very happy together.’

‘Really?’ Peter asked.

‘No.’ Sirius spat, and flounced out of my dormitory.

The next morning, I noticed that Courtney had very red eyes.

‘Lisa, will you ask the traitor to pass the butter, please?’ she said.

‘James, pass the butter, please.’

‘With pleasure.’

‘Lisa, will you ask the prat to pass the jam, please?’

‘Lily, pass the jam, please.’

‘Of course.’

‘Lisa, will you –’

‘Oh, just ask them yourself, Courtney! I’m not an owl!’ Lisa snapped, snatching up her bag and storming away from the table, leaving a gap between me and Courtney and a very awkward silence. Courtney took a huge bite of toast, drank the rest of her orange juice and left.

‘Well,’ I said, ‘that went well.’

‘Could have gone worse,’ James pointed out. ‘She could have turned you into a slug.’

‘I suppose so,’ I said, chewing my bottom lip having not been reassured at all. ‘Come on, lazy, we have to get to Potions.’

I practically had to drag him out of the Hall. ‘Merlin, you’re heavy!’ I panted as he stood up. ‘Never do that again!’

‘I can’t make any promises!’ James snorted.

‘Ha ha,’ I said sarcastically, prodding his back. ‘Go on, or we’ll be late.’

‘Aw, but I want you to myself,’ he whined. I ran in front of him and kissed his lips. His thumb brushed my cheek and I was like jelly. He pressed me against him and I wrapped my arms around his neck. My first kiss with Potter as my boyfriend, and I loved it.

‘Ahem!’ said an angry voice behind us.

We broke apart and turned to see Professor McGonagall standing behind us.

‘What do you think you’re doing?’ she demanded.

‘Kissing. Duh.’ James said, rolling his eyes.

Professor McGonagall’s nostril’s flared: she was really angry. ‘I can see that! Thirty points from Gryffindor each! And a detention! I can’t believe the Head Boy and Girl would do this! Now get to your class and don’t let me catch you doing it again!’ She marched off towards the Grand Staircase, her pointed hat askew and her arms swinging at her sides like she didn’t know what to do with them.

‘Sorry!’ I called. She turned to me for a second, her face completely red, then stomped upstairs. ‘I guess we made her angry,’ I said, genuinely ashamed. ‘Come on, we’d better get going.’

When we got into Potions, everyone was grouped around Slughorn’s desk. He looked up when I pushed the door open.

‘Ah, Miss Evans. Mr Potter. Why are you late, may I ask?’

‘Uh…’ James said. ‘We were talking to Professor McGonagall. About – um – Head Boy and Girl … duties.’

I tried hard not to laugh as we made our way towards the desk. I saw there was a little cauldron propped on it with golden liquid inside.

‘As I was saying,’ Professor Slughorn said, ‘over the next six months, we will be brewing Felix Felicis. When we complete it, if your potion is correct, you are allowed to take a small flask of it, but it must only be used on a normal day. Now, Felix is very hard to make so you must follow instructions very carefully, or it could go disastrously wrong!’ the Professor said dramatically. He closed his eyes as if remembering some horrible incident, and we all allowed him to return to his memories for a minute before Mary cleared her throat.

‘Sir, will we start making it today?’

Professor Slughorn opened his eyes and looked at her. ‘The very first steps, yes. Off you go, back to your desks.’

As Sirius Black wasn’t in our Potions class, James went to sit with Remus Lupin, Liam Ford and Gerry Fowey from Hufflepuff. Unfortunately for me, Courtney was, and there was a very awkward silence as I sat at the same table as her. Luckily, Mary and Ella sat between us, and I did my best to ignore the dirty glares she was giving me.

‘Everyone, turn to page thirty-six of Advanced Potion Making and you will see the ingredients for the first steps of Felix Felicis.’ Professor Slughorn commanded. I took out my book and flipped the page to thirty-six. The potion method went over the next page, and the next, and the next, until it took up seven whole pages of the book.

‘Bloody hell, this is complicated!’ Ella swore loudly.

‘Quite, Miss Jones,’ Professor Slughorn said amusedly, smiling at her. ‘Which is why you have to pay attention, Mr Potter!’ he said sharply, looking over at James’s table. He appeared to have been in deep conversation with Remus, and hadn’t even opened his book yet. James shot Professor Slughorn a scathing look and slammed his book open.

‘Now,’ Professor Slughorn continued. ‘I have the ingredients up here, as they were not on your list at the beginning of term. Only take the amount instructed, please! Professor Sprout will be most displeased if I ask her for more leaves from her new Venomous Tentacula! Off you go!’

The fact that there were Venomous Tentacula leaves in Felix Felicis didn’t seem to put anyone off as they all ran up to get their ingredients. I pulled four leaves from the pot, snatched up half a dozen Billywigs and all the other things before anyone else could and dashed back to my desk.

‘Professor,’ Gerry Fowey called. ‘Won’t we die if we drink it, because it has Venomous Tentacula leaves in it?’

‘Good question, Mr Fowey. No, you won’t. All the leaves have been thoroughly strained of their venom and washed. If, when you are older, you want to make it, make sure you do that or you probably will die.’ Professor Slughorn said, leaning over Gerry’s cauldron. ‘Yes, now put in the Flobberworms, before the leaves shrivel up too much.’

‘I can think of someone whose drink I’d give Felix to without straining the leaves.’ I heard Courtney mutter to Mary as she mutilated her spring onions. I tried to ignore her as I bent down to adjust the heat on my cauldron, but her voice rose.

‘She’s such a liar, she told me she didn’t like him, and now she’s going everywhere with him and snogging his face off whenever there are people around.’ With my face as red as my hair, I stood up.

‘For your information, Courtney,’ I said, leaning across the table. ‘I never told you I didn’t, and I don’t snog his face off in public! That’s what you did!’

Courtney sniffed and scraped her spring onions into her cauldron. She waved her wand in a clockwise direction and pretended to ignore me.

‘Don’t ignore me,’ I continued, as loudly as I could, ‘I know you can hear me.’ I tore the petals off the blue rose and began to rip them into fine strips. I dropped them into my cauldron, one at a time with a ten second gap between each, as instructed by Libatius Borage.

‘You know I don’t like you, Evans,’ Courtney said snidely as she continued to sir the potion with her wand. ‘You stole my boyfriend.’

I snorted. ‘You really think he went out with you because he wanted to?’ Courtney looked up, her wand hovering by her side.

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘It means: I told him to go out with you. I knew you liked him.’ I said, beginning to raise the temperature under my cauldron as the rose petals needed to melt.

‘Why would you do that?’

‘Because you’re one of my best friends,’ I said solemnly, looking her right in the eye.

‘You still are.’ I said stubbornly. ‘This is just an argument. It’ll blow over.’

‘It won’t. You and me are finished.’ Courtney said, and she turned her back on me.

‘At least you tried,’ James said reasonably.

‘Meh,’ I said, shrugging and prodding at my spaghetti. It was dinnertime, and I had just filled James in of my conversation with Courtney, having not been able to talk to him during lessons or lunch. ‘Gina McDowell told me she’s going out with Sirius now.’

‘Yeah,’ James said. ‘Man, that boy will do anything for revenge.’

I giggled and felt a tiny bit better. Courtney had refused to be in a ten mile radius of me and sat on the other side of the class, or otherwise asked if she could be taught elsewhere. I tried to pretend that I didn’t care, but there was always this painful gnawing in my stomach. Maybe if I hadn’t asked James to go out with her, this wouldn’t have happened. But maybe it would have done anyway.

That night, I decided to visit the Gryffindor common room. Professor McGonagall had told me the password at the beginning of the year, so I stepped up to the Fat Lady and confidently said,

‘Venomous Tentacula,’

‘Very good,’ she said approvingly, and swung forwards to admit me. I climbed through the portrait hole and walked into the common room. I missed it. Everyone looked up and I saw surprise in their faces.

‘Lily!’ Ella screamed, running towards me. ‘What’re you doing here?’

‘I’m looking for Courtney. D’you know where she is?’ I asked.

‘Umm … yeah I think she said she was going to the library or something.’ Ella told me, frowning. ‘Why?’

‘I need to talk to her,’ I replied simply. ‘See you tomorrow,’

‘Yeah … bye,’ Ella said as I climbed back out. I took a shortcut through an old tapestry and found myself in a round room. There was another tapestry at the other end, but there were already two people in there. One was Courtney. The other was Sirius. And they were snogging.

It took all of my willpower not to puke right there. But I made a loud gagging sound and they both looked round.

‘Right,’ Courtney said, ‘so first you set me up, then you STEAL my boyfriend, now you try to keep me from my new one!’

‘I’m not trying to keep you from Sirius, Courtney! I just innocently walk in and you’re right in my face!’ I retorted.

‘And why were you here, may I ask?’ Sirius demanded.

‘I’m going to the library, for your information. It’s not a crime, is it?’ I snapped.

‘Yes,’ Courtney snarled. ‘Go back to your stupid boyfriend. I hate you! If you do anything to me again … I’ll kill you!’ she yelled, and ran out. Sirius threw me a glare that clearly said, ‘Get lost before she comes back and kills you’, so I ran back the way I came. I screamed the password at Priscilla, who looked quite shocked and upset and barged my way into the Head’s common room. James was sat there at the table, writing on a piece of parchment.

‘Lily? What’s wrong?’ he asked as I collapsed into a chair next to him.

Suddenly, I burst into tears. ‘I – I saw Courtney and – ’

‘Sirius?’ he suggested. I nodded.

‘And she said she wanted to kill me,’ I wailed.

‘I’m sure she didn’t mean it,’ James said reassuringly, scooting his chair over and wrapping an arm around me. ‘She was probably just mad, or shocked.’

I nodded, burying my face into his shoulder. I wiped my eyes on his sleeve and looked up.

‘What’s this?’

‘McGonagall said there’s going to be a Halloween Ball this year, so we’ve got to organise it,’ James told me.

‘Halloween Ball?’ I asked. ‘We don’t normally have those.’

‘When I asked, she said Professor Dumbledore wanted to “mix this year up a bit”.’ James said. ‘Whatever that means.’

‘Oh, Merlin,’ I groaned, because I knew exactly what it meant. He had somehow found out about the whole ‘Lily–James–Sirius–Courtney’ love square. Man, that guy is smart. Too smart.

‘You can deal with the décor and stuff, because guys cannot do that kind of stuff.’ James said. When I didn’t reply, he looked down at me and kissed me on the top of my head. ‘Ah, don’t worry, Lily. I know what you’re thinking, but how can Dumbledore know about his whole business? He doesn’t have, like, spies or anything.’

‘You get all the easy stuff, am I right?’ I said, laughing as I reached across the table for a roll of parchment.

‘Oh, yeah,’ James replied, grinning. I dug into my bag to take out my quill. Dipping it into James’s ink pot, I thought about the décor. Black glitter. Yes. That was one. I wrote it on the parchment. The list got longer and longer as I added everything I’d ever wanted in a Halloween Ball. Live bats enchanted to fly around on the ceiling. Big, dead trees in the corners of the Hall with orange ribbons draped on the branches. Glowing pumpkins lining the walls instead of flaming torches.

James peered over. ‘That looks like a good list. Now, in terms of music, I’ve already put down the Weird Sisters, but who else?’

I thought about it. ‘Not Celestina Warbeck.’ I shuddered. ‘Um … how about that new band called The Hairy Elf? I heard them on the WWN, and they sound good.’

‘Alright. The … Hairy … Elf. That it?’

‘I think so. They’ve got a good range of songs that should last the night. Right, so we should have one dance, then dinner at about half past six.’ I said.

‘Let’s tell everyone to be there by six, so they can like meet their friends and stuff, and the dances start at twenty-five past. Yes?’

‘Correct,’ I said, watching as he wrote it down. A sudden thought occurred to me. ‘James. Everyone needs partners for the dance, right?’

‘Yeah. I was thinking about that.’ James replied. ‘Lily, will you go to the ball with me?’

‘Of course I will, dumbass,’ I said, but I gave him a kiss anyway.

Two days later, we finished all the planning and notified Professor McGonagall. She scanned our lists and said,

‘Very good. I will tell the Headmaster about this and he will announce it at dinnertime.’ She gave us a haughty look, as if saying ‘Make sure you don’t start snogging in front of everyone or so help me I swear I will do something to you’, and swept off.

Dinnertime couldn’t come soon enough. I sat with James on one side and Lisa on the other.

‘What are you two looking so smug about?’ she asked.

‘You’ll see,’ James said as Dumbledore stood up.

‘Ahem,’ he said quietly, but everyone fell silent at once. Damn, I wish I could do that. ‘I have an announcement to say to everyone. This year, to, let’s say, spice things up, the Head Boy and Girl have arranged a Halloween Ball, which will take place on the thirty-first of October. You will be expected to arrive at the Great Hall by six o’clock. Dinner will be served at half-past. Oh, and, like the Yule Ball last year, you will all be expected to bring a partner. Off to bed now! Toodle-pip!’

As soon as I was in the Entrance Hall, Lisa, Ella and Mary practically jumped on me and knocked me to the floor.

‘Thankyouthankyouthankyou!’ Mary screamed at me.

‘Uh. You’re welcome?’ I said.

‘This will finally be my chance to start things with Remus!’ she sighed dreamily as we made our way up the Grand Staircase.

‘Aren’t you together already?’ Ella said.

‘No, silly,’ Mary said, looking as though she thought Ella was stupid.

‘But … you went to Hogsmeade together. Alone. And he kissed you.’ I pointed out.

‘On the forehead, but that doesn’t mean anything,’ Mary said as she floated up in front of the Fat Lady.

‘Venomous Tentacula,’ she whispered, and she climbed through.

‘See you tomorrow, Lily,’ the others said as they climbed after her. I was about to turn to go up to the Head’s Common Room when I felt someone’s eyes on the back of my neck. I looked round to see Courtney and Sirius. They were holding hands but they were both giving me a look I knew very well.

The Death Stare.

Hey you guys :) I'm sooo sorry for the wait, but I have several excuses for this: a) I've just gone back to school -scream!-

b) my teachers are EVIL and I have sooo much homework

c) I'm currently working on another story (it's called Peanut Butter Geli Time if anyone wants to check it out *hint hint*)

and finally d) I have had writer's block for the past few weeks, so my story flow stopped for a while.

Pweeeease forgive me!! As always, that little grey box is down there waiting for you to start typing away (*HINT HINT*) and hopefully Chapter 8 will be up soon!